Linda Cooper Weddings : The Blog

Tips on choosing your wedding venue

First of all decide if you want to have a religious ceremony and if so, check out available dates with your church, synagogue or temple before looking for a venue – especially if you are getting married at a peak time of year or around religious holidays. That way you can check the correct availability before wasting time looking at Venues that are not available.

If you decide to hold your ceremony at the same venue as the following party, then do make sure that there is plenty of space to seat all your guests for the ceremony.  Also have an area for the reception and sit down meal without having to wait for the ceremony area to be re-dressed for the meal.  Decide if you want to have dancing during the meal or in the same space but after the meal, or if you would prefer to take guests into a different space that has been decorated as a nightclub.   If choosing a venue because of a beautiful outdoor space, ensure that there is a good inside 'bad-weather backup' space to accommodate all of your guests.  The world’s weather is now so unpredictable that Rome in June can be rainy and April in London can be warm!  Be covered for all eventualities – it saves ‘on the day’ stress.

When booking a venue always check the access and departure times carefully and ensure that there is ample time for setting up your chosen décor, flower installations, lighting, staging, rehearsal time for the musicians, etc.  Venues are often happy to allow access the day before a wedding at a reduced rate for set-up if they feel they won’t be losing business from another potential booking.  This is always worth checking out so that all of your suppliers can work in a less pressurised environment, especially if you have asked for a high level of decoration that takes time to install properly.

When choosing an overseas venue, take time to research on-line or through your Wedding Planner before making the trip for your site visits.  Also remember that every time you want to have a food tasting, meet the florist and all other local suppliers you will need to make an overseas trip so consider these costs for inclusion in your overall budget – they can mount up quickly!

At Linda Cooper Weddings we are constantly researching new venues and are lucky enough to be approached by several who only want to hire their prestigious premises a couple of times a year and only want to work with our clients.  Let us know if we can help secure that extra special venue for you.

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